User:Patigonzalezg/Sara Purca

Sara Regina Purca Cuicapusa (Lima, 1973) is an peruvian scientist. She obtained the title of fisheries engineer of the Universidad Nacional Federico Villarreal (UNFV) in the year 1998, with the named thesis “El fenómeno La Niña en el Mar Peruano”, developed in  the Hydrography and Navigation Directorate of the Peruvian Navy (DHN). He later obtained a Doctorate in Oceanography at the University of Concepción, Chile with a scholarship from the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD), with the thesis “Low-frequency temporal variability in the Humboldt Current Ecosystem off Peru”; This work was developed at the Peruvian Sea Institute (IMARPE).

Professional Trayectory
Doctor Purca works as a researcher at IMARPE in the Functional Area of Coastal Marine Research. She has participated in more than 20 publications related to the effect of the intraseasonal-decadal variability of the El Niño Southern Oscillation (ENSO) on the marine ecosystem off Peru.

Since 2013, he has taught oceanography courses in the master's programs at the Universidad Nacional Mayor de San Marcos and in the doctorate at the “Almirante Miguel Grau” Merchant Marine Naval School. She has been part of the reviewer program of the technical report “Marine Litter Plastics and microplastics, global lessons and research that inspires actions for change and political guidance”, sponsored by the United Nations Environment Program (UNEP), as well as a co-investigator. principal in the project CRN3070: Oceanographic Variability around South America (VOCES), sponsored by the Inter-American Institute for Global Change Research (IAI).

Likewise, she is developing research aimed at the analysis of oceanographic time series and the determination of the indices of ecosystem management and climate variability in the North Humboldt Current Ecosystem (NHCE), which aims to formulate a long-term strategic planning framework to provide the basis for improved governance and sustainable use of living marine resources and services.

Awards and honors
In 2018, she was one of the winning scientists of the “For Women in Science” award sponsored by the L'Oreal-UNESCO Foundation, the UNESCO office in Lima, the National Council of Science, Technology and Technological Innovation (CONCYTEC) and the National Academy of Sciences (ANC)

This international award has recognized contributions such as that of a Chilean astronomer who studies the Milky Way, an Arab chemist who seeks to improve the early detection of diseases, and a Mexican physical chemist who wants to reuse carbon dioxide to prevent it from going into the atmosphere.

Sara Purca and the food industry engineer Lena Gálvez (Arequipa) surpassed 40 doctors from 10 regions of Peru, the country where only 30% of researchers are women.

Doctor Purca has been selected to participate in the writing of the special report on oceans and cryosphere, sponsored by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). .

Women in science
Doctor Purca is undoubtedly a contemporary reference for girls who want to be researchers or scientists. From a very young age, she felt a keen interest in exploring the world around her, and together with her sister Lucila they dedicated themselves to dissecting butterflies. They captured them, poured alcohol on them and classified them. It was a pastime that became so popular in the Santa Isabel neighborhood in Carabayllo that the neighbors would catch the insects and leave them in the little girls' houses.

This curiosity and her mother's permanent motivation were the platforms that drove Sara to dedicate herself to scientific research. Some years later she met Dr. Norma Chirichigno Fonseca who promoted her scientific work in her first university years and about whom Dr. Purca assures that her help was important in her training as a researcher. Dr. Chirichigno would become her academic mentor and taught her everything related to the taxonomic classification and identification of fish, crustaceans, phytoplankton and zooplankton.